Touring Trinidad

When touring with "Jesse" your day includes a taste of local cuisine.
On our most recent outing we enjoyed "doubles" for breakfast and "rotis" for lunch. Both included lots of curry and of course, hot sauce if desired.
We also savoured "brigadine fruit" flavoured home-made ice cream.
We viewed teak plantations, water lilies in the reservoir surrounding pitch lake, frangipanis and fields of bird of paradise flowers.
We also got a glimpse of Trinidad's extensive petroleum industry which supplies an amazing 75% of the U.S. liquified natural gas needs.

Trinidad - Hindu Temples

On our tour along Trinidad's west coast, we visited 2 Hindu temples.
We were informed that 25% of Trinidad's population of 1.5 million (40% East Indian, 40% African blacks, 20% other nationalities) practice Hinduism.
One of the temples featured an 80 foot Hanuman (monkey God).
We learned a great deal about the religion, including its use of prayer flags.

Pitch Lake - Town

The town that neighbours on to Pitch Lake is truly a bizaar place.
When the pitch is mined the vein under the earth moves, which causes the land (and the houses on it) to shift. The solution used by the residents is to build their ever-shifting homes on pillars. The pitch that covers their yards is from explosions of built up gases in the lake, through the years.
Some of the buildings have slid down slopes as the under-lying pitch heated in the sun.

Pitch Lake (Asphalt)

We toured Trinidad's natural wonder, Pitch Lake, which is one of only three that exist in the world (here, Venezuela and La Brae, California). Trinidad's is the only one that is actively mined.
We hiked across water filled crevices where the gases are escaping as the pitch heats and heaves upwards. We saw the pitch in varying degrees of stability from hard and crusted to soft and pliable, as well as the processed pellet form that is exported.

Exploring Trinidad's North Coast

We had the good fortune to land a Crevalle Jack fish while trolling with our silver spoon lure off Trinidad's north coast.
Our next anchorage eastward was to tuck in under Chupara Point. We totally enjoyed sharing this bay with its many turtles, manta and sting rays who entertained us each evening as we took advantage of the open view to the setting sun in the west.
Location, location, location - this one had it all and we ended up staying four days before the threat of approaching bad weather forced us back to the shelter of Scotland Bay.
As we made our way back we had the thrill of viewing a huge Atlantic manta ray as it flew out of the water right beside our starboard bow. Our guide book tells us they can grow to a monstrous size of over 20 feet and up to 3,000 pounds. The first spash it made caught our attention and its second flight just blew us away - truly a magnificent sight!

35 Degrees Celsius - heat index - 42 Degrees
Time to go to the beach

When the weather forecast for the week ahead showed a window clear of any approaching tropical waves we decided to grab the opportunity and set sail along Trinidad's north coast to do some exploring.
Our first night we spent anchored in the totally secluded wilderness of La Vache Bay. Here we escaped the heat by swimming in the cool, green water and playing in a waterfall that cascaded from an over-hanging cliff into the bay - perfect for riding your dinghy through.
As our anchorage lay beside steep wooded hills, in the morning we awoke to the very strange, cool pleasure of being in the shade.
The next day we made our way eastward along the coast to the magnificent Maracas Bay which is over a mile wide with three spectacular white sand beaches.
Even though the weather conditions remained very calm, the surf coming in from the north never relented in its pounding upon the beaches. An attempt to land on the beach found us scrambling to get back out through the surf which threatened to swamp our dinghy.
We spent a somewhat anxious night anchored out past the surf line as we listened and watched the surf crash onto the rocks and beach. The resulting mist made the raw natural beauty of the area even more surreal.
The next morning we were happy to get clear of this albeit beautiful area and head on our way eastward again in search of a more tranquil location.

The Pan Man - Steel Drum Production

A day of touring with Jesse James (no fooling, that's his name) and his "Member's Only Maxi-Taxi Tour Co." allowed us the opportunity to discover the fine art of steel drum (pans) production.
We were introduced to a very labour intensive science that revealed the great strength and skill required to produce the sweet sounds of calypso music.
The studio we visited hand crafted pans with primitive tools. The process being that the steel drum is heated, then by means of dropping cannon balls by hand and using heavy mallets, over many hours, the steel is stretched down as far as 9 inches, allowing space for up to 36 notes.
We were told that some drummers play as many as 12 pans at a time.
We came away very impressed by the great talent we witnessed in the fine art production of these exquisite pans.

The House of Angostura - Aromatic Bitters, Rum

Another stop on our tour was at the "House of Angostura", which is home to a truly unique distillery, laboratory, bottling plant, museum and butterfly collection.
We were fascinated by the secrecy and history surrounding their elixir product - "aromatic bitters" - definitely a cure-all, especially for stomach complaints.
In the foyer of the building was an elaborate map that illuminated where their product was sold in the world. We got a chuckle out of Canada's placement on the map. Regretfully, in their eyes, a good part of us has joined with the U.S.
A large trolley took us past sights of girls hand-painting "limbo drummer" collector rum bottles, the bottling plant, rum aging in "Jack Daniels" barrels and trucks unloading molasses.
We enjoyed a sample or two from their product line which ran from their signature product: aromatic bitters, to rum, coffee liquer, gin, vodka and a variety of flavoured rum punches.

Trinidad - The petroleum industry

Trinidad is the most industrialized nation in the Caribbean.
The island's petroleum industry is one of the oldest in the world (older than Venezuela and Saudi Arabia), dating back to l857.
In the l970's the main source of the island's prosperity was oil but it is now natural gas (liquefied natural gas); accounting for 7-9% of the government's revenue.
Fuel costs in the Chaguaramas area translate in Canadian dollars, per liter, to:
52 cents for regular fuel, 54 cents for super and 30 cents for diesel. A real bargain, for sure, but expensive compared to the 10 cents per GALLON cost in Venezuela.
While in Chaguaramas, Trinidad, we've experienced first-hand the areas on-going problems of frequent power outages, serious gas/oil slicks on the water surface and garbage (especially plastic) washing in to the bay from the island during heavy rainfalls.

Out and About in Chaguaramas

The time has flown by since our arrival in Trinidad at the end of July.
We've been very busy arranging many repairs and improvements to our boat. There is no better place than Chaguaramas to under-take all those long over-due projects, but at the same time, we have also enjoyed many excellent outings and side-trips.
We attended a very interesting breakfast meeting of the Seven Seas Cruising Association and continue to be entertained weekly as we jump on board the tour bus to the movie theatre complex.
We've under-taken shopping excursions to town (Port of Spain), the Trincity mall and the Saturday morning outdoor market.
We've sampled the local cuisine offered at the many restaurants and bars in the surrounding marinas; connecting with our friends as they too make the circuit to dine on the daily specials.
We anchored our dinghy off Scotland Bay to have front row seats with hundreds of local boats to share in the excitement as the 39th Great Race participants, accompanied by 5 helicopters, sped by on their 86 mile course route to Tobago.
As we become more familiar with our surroundings we also have become better acquainted and formed many friendships with the other cruisers we continue to meet.